Friday, December 5, 2008

Little known episode about Bobby Fischer

Frank 'Boy' PestañoChessmoso

THE 38th Chess Olympiad in Dresden, Germany is over. Although I would like to write more about this event as it is one of the best Olympiads ever (next to Manila 1992!) all my articles for November have been about this event and it is about time to dwell on another matter.

During the wake of the late Job Tabada, father of Jobannie who is one of the strongest chess-playing member of Cepca now based in Dubai, there was a discussion among the club members about the late Bobby Fischer and what happened to his estimated fortune of P140 million, not including the gold holdings which he left in an Icelandic bank. Also not included is the royalty from the forthcoming movie, Bobby Fischer Goes to War set for release in 2010.

From 2000 to 2002, Fischer lived in Baguio City. He resided in the same compound as Eugenio Torre, a close friend.

Fischer played tennis at the Baguio Country Club, where he met a woman named Marilyn Young. Together, they had a daughter named Jinky, born in 2002 (or 2001) at the Saint Louis University, Baguio City, Sacred Heart Hospital.

The money is part of the prize ($3.8million) that he got for the rematch against Boris Spassky in Sveti Stefan and Belgrade in 1992 that was not allowed by the United Nations due to the civil war in Bosnia. This was the reason why he was wanted by the United States government. His passport was revoked and he was arrested in Japan.

With the help of some Icelandic chess friends, Fischer was able to obtain an Icelandic passport and was flown out of Japan in March 2005

The money was held for a long time in a Swiss bank account but the bank refused to deal with Fischer shortly after he moved to Iceland, and this money was transferred there (Iceland).

Although it has been mentioned that Bobby married Miyoko Watai, the President of the Japanese Chess Association, his daughter has precedence. Also, in an interview, Bobby was quoted in German television as saying that he has never been married.

“I have with me a copy of the passports, pictures and bank accounts of Fischer’s seven-year-old daughter,” Sammy Estimo, lawyer of Marilyn Young, said. “I believe we have substantial proof to back the claims of Marilyn Young and her daughter Jinky. They even stayed with him in Iceland for three weeks in September 2005.”

Also Bobby was in contact with them almost daily via cell phone and sent them monthly euro remittances.

The deadline for receiving claims to the estate of the deceased chess legend was May 17, 2008, or three months after Fischer died of renal failure on January 17, this year. The Probate Court had already received the claim folder of Jinky Young before this date.

I still don’t know by now if Jinky has already received her rightful share of the inheritance as this whole episode happened early this year. There has been no news and we probably won’t know unless the parties concerned would reveal it to the public. And then there is the IRS who is also trying to recover money from Fischer in back taxes.

In Wikipedia, it was mentioned that the dispute between Jinky Young and Watai was settled amicably in the Icelandic courts.

CORUS 2009. One of the most prestigious tournament in the chess calendar is Corus in Holland in January next year.

Wesley So has been invited to play in the C group where he is seeded No.1. If he makes good, he will be invited to big time tournaments all over the world especially in Europe and can be a multi-millionaire in a short time.

His closest adversaries will be David Howell of England and Abhijeet Gupta of India who played in Mandaue last year.